Well before leadership became an issue, Labor buried a commissioned report that recommended it without bothering to even test the feared union backlash.

If Roger Douglas was dead he'd be laughing in his grave as the bully across the Tasman has again had to wait on the shaky isles' leadership before they could even speak of it.

Coonan could not avoid being an improvement on Alston but she seems determined to go down kicking and screaming that she did not really want to be too big an improvement.

Maybe 2007 might still have one more touch to be remembered for.